No, seriously. I am not joking. While the MCU may have changed who his dad was, the comic book version is very much of royal lineage. Ergo, he gets to be my favorite royal. In the comics, his dad, J’son, was part of the interstellar Spartax Empire.

J’son crash landed on Earth one day, where he met Meredith Quill. They ended up dating while he fixed his ship, but he had to leave her behind. What no one knew was that she was pregnant with their child. Also, J’son was actually the prince of the Spartax Empire, so that kind of makes Peter Quill the sci-fi version of Jon Snow.

Unlike Jon, Peter got to spend his childhood with his mom and live a normal life, until that alien race fighting the Spartoi found out about him and tried to kill him. He survived while his mom died, and vowed to travel to space and get revenge. After NASA wouldn’t let him join, though, he stole a Kree ship from them and ran away.

Peter took the name Star-Lord and fell in with a band of rogues for a while before he finally met his father. They didn’t get along. After trying to force him to become Prince, J’son was instead overthrown. So, Pete ended up becoming Emperor for a while. He even got engaged to Kitty Pryde from the X-Men. Too bad they broke it off in the end.

Peter continues wandering the universe, either alone or as part of the Guardians of the Galaxy. No matter how hard he tries though, he can’t seem to escape his royal lineage. His own dad even put a bounty on him. Regardless, he still fights for good across the universe as Star-Lord, making him my favorite royal.